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After receiving countless varieties of seeds in the MMMM, I broke down and ordered a few "relatives" of Marglobe from Victory Seeds. One of them is Marvelosa, which sounds like it should be a magician's name or a spell from the Harry Potter books, not a tomato. A search didn't turn up much on this forum. In a 2007 post, Craig L. wrote this: "from a cross between Ponderosa and Marvel, smooth pink fruit, good variety." If any Tomatovillians have experience growing Marvelosa, I'd love to hear your thoughts/impressions. I'll be planting one out in a few weeks...

After receiving countless varieties of seeds in the MMMM, I broke down and ordered a few "relatives" of Marglobe from Victory Seeds. One of them is Marvelosa, which sounds like it should be a magician's name or a spell from the Harry Potter books, not a tomato. A search didn't turn up much on this forum. In a 2007 post, Craig L. wrote this: "from a cross between Ponderosa and Marvel, smooth pink fruit, good variety." If any Tomatovillians have experience growing Marvelosa, I'd love to hear your thoughts/impressions. I'll be planting one out in a few weeks...

Thanks for the info, Carolyn. As I wrote, Victory Seeds was my source for the seeds. I had already looked on Tatiana's TomatoBase, and read some of the early 20th-century publications that describe Marvelosa as a favorite of Southern truck growers, before opening this thread. Since you seem to be disparaging the variety (have you grown it?), I'll mention that Craig's 2007 list of varieties from the USDA describes many as "ho hum," "so so," "boring," "undistinguished," and "pretty good." "A good variety" sounds like high praise indeed! (YMMV.) Again, if anyone has firsthand experience of this variety, I'm all ears!

Thanks for the info, Carolyn. As I wrote, Victory Seeds was my source for the seeds. I had already looked on Tatiana's TomatoBase, and read some of the early 20th-century publications that describe Marvelosa as a favorite of Southern truck growers, before opening this thread. Since you seem to be disparaging the variety (have you grown it?), I'll mention that Craig's 2007 list of varieties from the USDA describes many as "ho hum," "so so," "boring," "undistinguished," and "pretty good." "A good variety" sounds like high praise indeed! (YMMV.) Again, if anyone has firsthand experience of this variety, I'm all ears!

I lost the post I was doing here when I went to fetch a link to use here. So I'll try to remember most of what I originally posted.

No, I am not disparaging Marvelosa,I have grown many in the Marglobe family as well as the different colored Ponderosas,including the pink.

This is the link with the comments and list of what Craig got out of the USDA,aka the PC GRIN program

And I didn't see many adjectives he used at all to describe the varieties,referring to your examples above,such as ho hum,boring ,etc.I did see he wrote good after Marvelosa.

In that link you'll also see that I made a comment that while Craig made a list of what he got out,I did not.

But both of us got many varieties out of the PC GRIN, both of us SSE listed them so that others would have access to them,and both of us described many of them in a newsletter called OFF THE Vine which I started and asked Craig to join me.

But I never grew Marvelosa by itself,to answer your question directly..

I bought seed from Mike/Victory Seeds as well and its a good tomato. Old tomato taste and its a good canning tomato. I would like to find seed of the original Marvel tomato - Livingston's Acme too.

Cool; thanks for the review. Mine should start ripening any day now... I've got Livingston's Globe on my grow-list for 2018; couldn't find room for it this year. I'd also love to get my hands on Marvel seed...

Mike carries Marvelosa. No questions about Acme... I'm still searching for a family who still grows it and Mike will be the guy I give seeds - even if its a 70 year old dead seed packet. He deserves it for being our curator for these ancient varieties.

Marvel: no can find the original Henry Dreer's Marvel or Hansing's Improved Marvel. Tania states Marvel is aka Marcheille des Marches, but I thought MdM is known as Market Wonder??? You already know the history: Pritchard bred with Marvel (Dreer or Hansing's Improved?) with Globe and it was released in 1925 as Marglobe. I fear both Marvels may be lost like Acme. As always, your input/guidance is ALWAYS most appreciated!!!

The info is found on p. 59, where Marvel is described as a "medium early tomato" that "bears a heavy crop of smooth, red fruit." Marvel is listed as one of five varieties developed to have resistance to fusarium wilt.

Due to my well known allegiance to Marglobe [g] -- I have quite a bit of info on Marvel, but no time to chase it at the moment. If anyone does run down the original Marvel, please blow trumpets, as I've been looking for it, too. I'd think that as a significant USDA development it *should* be lurking in some US or perhaps Canadian seed bank or archive, but . . . ?

At least it survives in its children.

FWIW, the little bit below may be of interest to those looking for info about it.

As Merveille des Marches was a famous tomato in its day, known among other things as a "disease resistant" tomato, it's not surprising that there were many derivations from it that in English speaking nations were named "Marvel." However, I noticed when she began listing a Marvel tomato that the Marvel Tania sells appears to be of a later date and description different from "the" Marvel -- the famous parent of Marglobe and ancestor of many, many current tomato varieties. Origin of "the" Marvel is well recorded in many locations -- developed in the USA in the early 20th century via many generation selection from Merveille des Marches by Fred Pritchard.

There is some info about Marvel here -- also interesting discussions in Pritchard's work concerning what some now call tolerance vs resistance, ie plants that exhibit a disease, plants where non-apparent disease may be detected via microscopic exam of internal parts, and . . . rare . . . instances where a plant just does not appear to acquire the disease:

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Below is my record of Pritchard's description of his "Marvel" tomato from pages 15, 16 . . . and 17? of the brochure above (though looking at one copy of that brochure, p 16 seems to not be displaying, which may be confusing):

"The Marvel is a selection from Merveille des Marches (Marvel of the Market), a French variety sold by Vilmorin-Andrieux & Co., Paris, France. Before it was named it was distributed for trial as F 59. The Marvel and F 59 are therefore the same variety.

Under favorable conditions the Marvel produces a heavy crop of medium-early smooth red fruit, similar in size, shape, and smoothness to the fruit shown in Plate IX, figure 1. It usually sets a great many fruits and continues to bear heavily long after most early varieties are dead.

It is highly resistant to tomato wilt and possesses a little resistance to tomato leaf-spot {Septoria lycopersici).

It is an excellent variety for forcing, for medium-early trucking, and for home gardening. Its wonderful vitality of vine, its relative freedom from diseases, and its superior fruit for use in the fresh state make it an excellent tomato for all-round use.

As I believe this is long out of copyright should be OK to include this image from the brochure above -- "the" Marvel looked like this: (Of course, in those days, a smooth round red tomato was kind of the "new thing".

So is the USDA version a 3rd Marvel Tomato? It appears the original Marvel was a Dreer-developed tomato from before 1903. Hansing's Improved Marvel is also wilt resistant and came out around the time of Pritchard's USDA developed Marvel tomato. From the Michigan State Bulletin #208 of April 1903:

So many Marvels... Fingers crossed the one selected from Merveille des Marches is eventually rediscovered. In the meantime, Marvelosa is doing great for me! It's less of a hassle to control than Marglobe (with its sprawling habit), really productive, and the fruit ripened nearly two weeks earlier than Marglobe. The Marvelosas are beautiful -- deep pink, smooth, largely blemish-free, no BER -- and have a great taste and texture. The flavor is a bit less tangy than many reds, but it's packed with old-time tomatoey goodness. Definitely a keeper for me, and I'm not the biggest fan of pink tomatoes. (This year I discovered, to my great disappointment, that I really don't like Brandywine Sudduth's or Brandy Boy. Caspian Pink wasn't great, either.) I'm currently saving LOTS of Marvelosa seeds from bagged blossoms and plan to regrow it next season. I'm also trying Livingston's Globe and either Break O' Day (if I can find seeds) or Rutgers next year.

FYI - Glovel, Marglobe's "sister" variety, seems even less acidic than Marvelosa to my tastebuds, but it's very pretty -- a shiny, medium rose-pink, and also largely blemish-free. It seems to complement other flavors very well, without overpowering them. I'm finding it great in salads, tomato tarts with roasted garlic and parmesan, and sandwiches. This weekend I'll try grilling a few Marvelosas and Glovels and adding a white balsamic vinaigrette. Both should be quite good, I think...